Darkened Paths: Part 1 (chapters 1-3)
by Princess Zelda
Summary: Kurai is living a normal life until her birthday...then she is all alone...


Chapter 1  
  
Kurai Enkou was twelve years old. She was from a family of warriors. Sometimes she thought it was too hard, having to learn to fight with many different weapons and train pokemon. But she excelled in both, and was now working on controlling her elemental skills better. Her mother, Flare, and her father, Blaze, were both fire elementals. So were her brothers, Byrn and Bryn, who were twins, and her little sister Embyr, who was still working on her pokemon training. But Kurai's older sister Claire, was an ice elemental. Nobody knew what had happened, until they looked at the family tree, and found a second cousin by marriage was an ice elemental. So they guessed that might have been it.  
  
But just because Claire was different from the rest of her family didn't mean she was any less powerful. She was the most powerful ice elemental in three hundred years.   
  
But back to Kurai. She was twelve years old. Tomorrow she'd be thirteen! But today she couldn't stand around and do nothing, she had to train. She called out her Rapidash and climbed on. She could train with Zane today.  
  
She and Zane were very close friends. He didn't live too far away from Kurai and they both were equally powerful.   
  
Kurai loved the feeling of riding Rapidash. Its hooves thundered, its mane was flying like her hair. She closed her eyes and imagined she was flying. That was a great feeling. They sped down the beach, Rapidash kicking up sandstorms. Kurai loved seeing the ocean. Some Gyrados were practicing Hyper Beams, and Dewgongs and Lapras were swimming together. But soon they were out of sight, Rapidash had reached Zane's house.  
  
Zane and his family, all electric elementals, lived at the top of a cliff on the seaside. Kurai and her family lived on the rim of a volcano. So Zane couldn't ever visit because he was scared he might fall in. She smiled when he had refused to come to her house to train. Rapidash slowed to a trot outside Zane's house. She climbed off Rapidash and walked around to the back where Zane was cleaning off his sword.  
  
"Hey." He looked up at Kurai and smiled. Zane stood up and walked over Kurai, who was just drawing her sword. They got into fighting stances, and began training.  
  
Kurai began by slashing at Zane's leg, and Zane blocked it. That was pretty much how it was for the whole hour, attacking and blocking. They never aimed to hurt each other, this was just for practice.  
  
After their short practice session, Zane offered to ride home with Kurai. Kurai agreed, and challenged him to a race, Zane on his Zapdos and Kurai on her Moltres.   
  
"Ready?" Kurai grinned at Zane as he hovered up in the air on his Zapdos.   
  
"Yeah." Zane took off on his Zapdos, yelling "agility" right before he did.   
  
"Flame agility!" Moltres glowed red, and it took off after Zapdos, leaving a long trail of fire behind it. Soon Moltres caught up with Zapdos, and they were neck-and-neck the whole way back to Kurai's house. Zapdos lowered itself to the ground and Kurai returned Moltres.   
  
"See ya tomorrow" Zane called.   
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Kurai watched from the rim of the volcano as Zane flew off on his Zapdos. They had known each other...forever. She couldn't think of life without him as a friend.   
  
The sun was setting over the ocean. It was beautiful, the fiery colors reaching from out of the blazing orb to the sky. She sat on the rim of the volcano, her legs hanging off the side, watching as the sun set.   
  
A while later, when the sun had gone down and the moon was beginning to rise, she decided it was time to go inside. She stood on the rim of the volcano and positioned herself for a dive. She let go and performed a perfect dive into the lava. As soon as she hit the surface, she swam under until she reached a large, bubble-like structure. She swam through the wall of it. When she did, she was in a room. This was Kurai's home.   
  
((NOTE: If you've ever seen StarWars: Episode 1, it's like the Gungan City.))  
  
She didn't see her family anywhere, they must already be asleep. She went in her room and got ready to sleep. But she couldn't, she was too excited. Tomorrow was her birthday!  
  
====((NOTE: Since you probably don't want me to write endless paragraphs on how many times she inhaled and exhaled while she was asleep, I think I'll go on to when she wakes up;)))====  
  
The next day, on her birthday, Kurai was shaken awake by her little sister, Embyr.  
  
"Sissy, wake up!" she whined. "Wake up sissy! Mommy an' daddy needs you!"   
  
"Alright, alright, I'm up." Kurai rubbed her eyes as she got out of bed. Then she saw tears flowing from Embyr's soft brown eyes and the worried look on her face. "What's wrong Embyr?"  
  
"They here!" Embyr took Kurai's hand and led her into the living room. Kurai saw her older sister, Claire sitting at the table with a grim look on her face.   
  
"What's wrong?" Kurai asked again.  
  
Claire looked up. "They're here. Mom and dad, and everyone else, they need us. We have to go now."  
  
"No...no...they can't be here..." Kurai looked afraid, for the first time in her life. She knew who they were. Almost automatically, she picked up her sword and followed her sisters outside. She swam up to the rim of the volcano. As soon as her head broke the surface, she wanted to swim back down and hide. Forever.   
  
Kurai was paralyzed with fear. She wanted to scream, but her voice wouldn't travel up to her mouth.   
  
There were people wearing black, with swords like Kurai and the other elementals had, but they were evil. They were the evil elementals. They killed. For fun. She watched as they hacked away at people. People she knew. Her friends. Her family.   
  
Kurai stared in shock. She never thought that this would happen.   
  
"Come on. We have to go help." Claire looked shaky too, but they couldn't let their family and friends just die like that. Kurai climbed out of the volcano. Her jaw set, she, Claire, and Embyr walked to the battlefield, which used to be their backyard. Then, it began.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
V101 was lost in the chaos. She caught a few glimpses of people she knew, hacking away at enemies. She was looking for someone to team up with, to catch her breath. She didn't see her parents, but she saw Zane.   
  
He was standing alone, surrounded by evil elementals. She was scared for him, so she ran over, cutting through the body of the one who stood in her way. He smiled at her for a second, then focused his attention back on the fight. They both had their swords, and electricity combined with fire can be pretty powerful against a water and grass type elemental. They evil elementals had a pokemon that they used to battle with, some of the grass had Ivysaurs, some of the fire had Charmeleons, some of the water had Totodiles.   
  
Kurai and Zane were battling bravely. They hacked away at bodies, cut through enemies, but were outnumbered. Deep down Kurai knew that they couldn't possibly win. Finally, they got a chance to catch their breath. They stood behind a rock, only to tend to their wounds for a minute, so they could get back.  
  
"Look, we can't win." Zane winced as Kurai put his sword to his leg and closed up the wound that was there by shooting some electricity into it. "We can just go, me and you, and defeat them later."  
  
V101 looked at him with a mad look on her face. "And just let our family die? Do you think I'd do that? Well, you can, but I'm going back out there." Kurai picked up her sword and ran off back to the battle.  
  
"Kurai!!" Zane struggled to his feet and jogged off after her. When they got there, Zane turned off to an evil water elemental, while someone else caught Kurai's eye. Up on the rock that had once served as a place for Kurai to watch the sunset, a woman was standing there. She had long silver hair with black and yellow streaks in it. At her side was a Raichu, evilly grinning as it attacked people Kurai knew quite will. She couldn't believe that this was happening, but it didn't matter, because she ran straight for that woman, as if something was drawing her to this mysterious, evil person.   
  
When she reached her, the woman smiled and pulled out her sword. It was larger than Zane's, and looked more powerful. It glowed with black electricity. Then the woman laughed as Kurai's hands looked as if they had caught on fire, burning brightly.  
  
"Well, well, what do we have here? A little girl, come to kill me?" She gave a cold, cruel laugh. "My name will be the last you ever hear, girly." She put her face close to V101's. "I am Voltra, little girl, and now, you are dead." Voltra swung her sword at Kurai's head, but she ducked out of the way. Then Kurai chopped with her fire sword, setting Voltra's head on fire. Voltra screamed, and her Raichu used a Quick Attack on Kurai, knocking her to the ground. She struggled to her feet, spitting out blood from her mouth. Voltra was distracted by someone's Fearow; Kurai thought it might be Skylar's, her friend who lived on top of the mountain. Voltra slew it with a quick thrust of her sword through its heart.  
  
Kurai took advantage of this time to swing at Voltra, chopping her arm off. Voltra screamed in agony and whirled around, taking off Kurai's hand. Kurai grunted and flung the blood off, taking one last swing at Voltra. Her sword found its mark, burying the point deep inside of Voltra's heart. Voltra yelled in agony again, blood pouring out from her mouth and heart. Kurai pulled her sword out and wiped it on the grass as Voltra fell, rushing over to help Zane. But before she did, her heart stopped.  
  
A group of evil water elementals had her parents cornered. Her little sister, Embyr, was huddled up against their mother, and Claire was surrounded by some evil fire ones. She cried out, jumping into the melee, bodies flying everywhere. But, they were cornered, and Claire was struck down before Kurai's very eyes.   
  
Kurai's brothers were soon slaughtered, and Embyr went down with a spear through her chest. Her mother was killed by a sword through her jugular vein. Her father, fighting bravely, went down, but took quite a few with him. Kurai had no time to cry, as she rushed over to help her aunt and uncle, both electric elementals. But sadly, they went down too. Kurai remembered that she had a cousin too, but didn't see her anywhere, so presumed that she had died or managed to escape. She rushed over to help Zane.  
  
He was surrouned on all sides by different elementals, those of different types, and was bleeding badly all over. Kurai jumped into the circle they had formed, taking down five or six by setting fire to them. There were only five elementals left, evil ones that is, besides Zane and herself. Zane killed off three, Kurai took care of the remaining two. There were bodies everywhere, but Kurai and Zane just leaned up against a rock.  
  
"Well...just you and me." Kurai wiped the now flowing tears from her face.  
  
"Look ,Kurai," Zane turned to Kurai. "I...I'm not gonna make it. You'll be on your own. I'm sorry, I really am, but I took some pretty bad injuries back there, and I'm telling you, I'm not gonna be here much longer." Zane reached up and wiped the tears from her face.  
  
"No, Zane, you can't...you'll be ok, I promise." Kurai's tears were now doubled in number, as she couldn't beleive that her best friend was dying."  
  
"Don't make a promise you can't keep." Zane put his arms around Kurai, pulling her into a hug, trying to accept his fate bravely and comfort his friend.  
  
"But you can't..." Kurai had lost everyone else. Not Zane too. This couldn't happen. She hugged him back, ignoring the blood pouring out of the various wounds. He seemed to do the same, because Kurai was covered in blood, mostly her own.  
  
Zane winced, and lay down on the ground. Kurai knelt next to him. "You can't give up, you can't..." She seemed to run out of tears. Not Zane too, he couldn't die.   
  
"Look, I don't want to say it anymore, I'm dying. Just don't cry and make my last moments here better than they were a few minutes ago."  
  
For a few minutes, Kurai and Zane just sat there, covered in blood, his heart scarcely beating, Kurai's tears gone, and both trying not to look too sad.   
  
"I'm sorry..." Zane started to lay his head back. Kurai wiped the tears from her face  
  
"Me too..."  
  
"But I'm sorry you have to...to be all by yourself now..." Zane smiled through the blood and tears. Kurai sat sobbing by his side, until he gave a final smile, trying to accept his fate bracely.  
  
After a few hours of sitting by Zane's body, Kurai found his sword. He had told her before that he wanted her to have his pokemon, and that he wanted to be buried, not cremated as Kurai had thought of. After two hours, Zane and his sword were buried, and Kurai was alone.  
~*~*~*~*~*~*  
There's the un-edited (almost ^_^) first 3 chapters. I'll let you know if I finally get over this laziness and write some more. ~_^ 


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